28 Jan 201905:11am IST

28 Jan 201905:11am IST

QUEPEM: It is strange but true that since the last one and half year, Quepemkars are doing their daily shopping at the road side putting their life in danger and locals as well as other vendors sit at the age of the road.

It is a sorry state of affairs of the municipality and the failure of the Department of Municipal Administration (DMA), who are responsible for this nuisance. Quepem Municipal Council (QMC) had vacated the old market building to construct a new market. QMC had acted in a hurry in shifting the vendors and demolishing the market building without proper procedure. Due to negligence of both QMC and DMA, Quepemkars are suffering.

QMC without any homework and without any thought had shifted the vegetable Market, fish market and Sunday market to Quepem Urban Co-operative Society (QUCS). Without providing facilities QMC shifted the vendors in temporary shed erected near Quepem Catholic Cemetery. One can see it’s a death trap created by QMC. Vendors are sitting at the edge of the road and selling their products. Costumers stand on the road to buy the goods. During the morning hours and especially during the school time one can experience the horror on this road.

Due to the encroachment by the vendors and costumers it makes difficult to commuters and vehicles to cross the road. To make things worse, some undisciplined vehicle owners park their vehicles on the road itself. On Sunday, vendors from Belgavi and other places come with their products. Road from the RTO office till QUCS building is encroached upon.

Condition of fish market is horrible with stench all over the place. Fish vendors informed Herald that they have been forced to sell the fish in stink from last 18 months. QMC is collecting sopo from the vendors but they clean the market in time. Vendors opined that the place was not suitable for temporary market and the QMC should have found out some other alternative for market place.

Even after 18 months, there are no sign of the new market building as not even a foundation stone of new building has been laid. Government has sanctioned Rs 6 crores for the new complex. However, after floating tenders on three occasions, no contractor has come forward to construct the Quepem market. QMC is waiting for a contractor and vendors and customers are waiting for the market.

The shopkeepers who were shifted from the old building are upset over the delay in constructing the new building. They complained that the delay has affected their business.

QMC has expressed confidence that the construction work will be completed by next year.

Meanwhile, Quepemkars have demanded deployment of police personnel at the temporary market site to maintain discipline and to manage the vehicle movement. Will the QMC and the local MLA Chandrakant Kavlekar take notice of this demand?